Tomjanovich Is Right Man on Wrong Day

On the day the Lakers finally introduced Rudy Tomjanovich as their coach, they made him irrelevant.

The whole point of bringing in Tomjanovich is to maintain some level of championship credibility, right?

If you’re going to kick Phil Jackson and his nine NBA championships to the curb, the only viable replacement is someone who managed to wrangle as many rings as anyone else in the league during Jackson’s 14 seasons as a head coach.

It’s time to stop associating the Lakers with the word “championship.” By trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and Caron Butler, they’re no longer capable of winning one ... and perhaps not even overly concerned about winning one.

Otherwise they wouldn’t trade a man who has played in the All-Star game eight times and was the game’s most valuable player twice (including five months ago) for a bunch of guys with zero All-Star appearances among them.

And they wouldn’t trade a man who has played in 24 NBA Finals games (averaging 26.6 points and 10.8 rebounds in the five most recent) and racked up three Finals MVP trophies for three men who have yet to make it to the Finals.

Have the Lakers forgotten they’re ... the Lakers? They’re the team that acquires legendary centers for the duration of their careers, not the one that trades them away to retire elsewhere.

Have they forgotten that Tomjanovich was at his best when he had a center wearing No. 34 on his team?

While coaching the Houston Rockets, Tomjanovich had more success with established players such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Kenny Smith, Otis Thorpe and Clyde Drexler then he did when young cats Stevie Francis and Cuttino Mobley took over.

Tomjanovich catered to the vets, with travel and practice schedules that allowed for maximum rest.

But even on the veteran-laden championship teams of the mid-’90s, a young player such as Robert Horry could flourish.

“Everybody’s on their own,” with Tomjanovich, Horry said. “It’s on you.... You’ve got to play.”

Only four coaches have won NBA championships since 1991. Horry, after spending last season with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, has played for three of them.

Jackson, Horry’s coach in L.A. from 1999 to 2003, wasn’t above calling out his superstars in the media. Popovich can lambaste his team publicly while privately no one -- not even Tim Duncan -- is above criticism.

Oh, but Tomjanovich can yell too.

“He’ll get on the group, not choose any one guy to yell at,” Horry said. “He’s not like Pop, who’ll call you out individually.”

While we’re on the subject of Horry, is there any way the Lakers can bring him back, just to return a little sample of the suddenly long-ago golden days? Is there anyone out there in Lakerland who would object to this? Can we clear this with Kobe?

Until then, Tomjanovich marks the Lakers’ first step forward in three weeks. Too bad it came at the same time the Lakers made a giant leap backward.

Let’s look at the incoming players plus the Lakers currently under contract for next season who have not hinted at retirement: Odom, Grant, Butler, Gary Payton, Devean George, Kareem Rush, Luke Walton and Brian Cook.

In other words, as a certain high-decibel public address announcer near South Beach likes to say, “YOUR MIAMIIII HEEEEEAAAAT!”

We’re talking about the same type of team that made it to the second round of the Eastern Conference. Not the West. I know, the NBA champion Detroit Pistons came from the East, but top-to-bottom the conference is nowhere near as loaded as the West. That Heat squad, which relied heavily on rookie Dwyane Wade, wouldn’t make the playoffs out West.

Even if Kobe Bryant returns and provides deluxe upgrade on Wade, this team wouldn’t be expected to get past the second round of the playoffs either.

To what teams could the Lakers consider themselves superior?

Not the San Antonio Spurs, who just replaced Hedo Turkoglu with a guy who can actually make shots, Brent Barry.

Not the Minnesota Timberwolves, assuming Sam Cassell bounces back from hip surgery.

Not the Sacramento Kings, who have one last chance to get it right.

That leaves the Lakers to fight it out against teams such as the Rockets and Phoenix Suns. Thanks to the Laker trade, plus a blockbuster of their own, the Rockets now have the best center in the West (Yao Ming) and last season’s top scorer (Tracy McGrady).

The Suns got better with the addition of Steve Nash (while simultaneously dropping the Dallas Mavericks down a notch) and really get interesting if the Clippers don’t match their offer sheet to Quentin Richardson.

Of course, the Clippers can’t decide about Richardson until they hear from Bryant. The Lakers can’t even know whether to think of themselves as a playoff team until they hear from Bryant.

There’s still uncertainty even after they spent the summer doing his bidding, be it ousting Jackson, courting Mike Krzyzewski and shopping O’Neal. And aren’t they at least a little concerned that his agent, Rob Pelinka, is the same guy who just duped the Cleveland Cavaliers into freeing Carlos Boozer, who then bolted on them for more money in Utah?

The Lakers have made moves based on player input before. They axed Paul Westhead after Magic Johnson publicly demanded it. Replacement Pat Riley won four championships in seven years.

They shipped out Nick Van Exel and brought in Phil Jackson in part because of O’Neal’s requests. They won three NBA championships after they did so.

Only similar results could justify what they’ve just finished doing to this team.

Tomjanovich’s most famous saying is “Never underestimate the heart of a champion.”

But it’s time to question this former championship organization’s brains.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.

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Laker Coaches

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Rudy Tomjanovich becomes the 20th coach of the Lakers and the seventh since 1990. Of the last eight Laker coaches, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson are the only ones to win NBA championships (* Minneapolis):

*--* Coaches Record Pct. Titles John Kundla* 423-302 583 5 George Mikan* 9-30 231 0 John Castellani* 11-25 306 0 Jim Pollard* 14-25 359 0 Fred Schaus 348-283 552 0 Bill van Breda Kolff 128-69 650 0 Joe Mullaney 110-84 567 0 Bill Sharman 268-179 600 1 Jerry West 153-115 571 0 Jack McKinney 9-4 714 0 Paul Westhead 125-56 691 1 Pat Riley 533-194 733 4 Mike Dunleavy 101-63 616 0 Randy Pfund 66-80 452 0 Bill Bertka 2-1 667 0 Magic Johnson 5-11 313 0 Del Harris 224-116 659 0 Kurt Rambis 24-13 658 0 Phil Jackson 287-123 700 3

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Rocket Man

Tomjanovich’s coaching career with the Houston Rockets (* won NBA championship):

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REGULAR SEASON

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Season Win Loss Pct. 1991-92 16 14 533 1992-93 55 27 671 1993-94* 58 24 707 1994-95* 47 35 573 1995-96 48 34 585 1996-97 57 25 695 1997-98 41 41 500 1998-99 31 19 620 1999-2000 34 48 415 2000-01 45 37 549 2001-02 28 54 341 2002-03 43 39 524 Totals 503 397 559

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